Congrats to all of our seniors as they are finishing up school and  preparing for graduation. You all have worked so hard, way to go!

This past weekend was the baccalaureate service at MHS for our seniors. Baccalaureate was a wonderful time , and an awesome opportunity to thank God for those who are graduating. We also had lots of fun with a game night at youth group on Sunday!

This week we will be meeting for regular youth group from 6-7:30 and continue our awakening series. I hope to see you there!

Here is what we have going on in the next few weeks to come:

May 29th-

• Youth Group 6:00-730

June 5th

• Church Picnic NO YOUTH GROUP

June 10th-11th

• Church yard sale! All work campers look for info from Mrs. Tice coming soon!

June 12th

• FUEL worship 6-8:30

Well, that’s all for now! Have a fantastic rest of your week, and way to go seniors!!
see ya this weekend
-Carlee

Sunday was confirmation Sunday and we welcomed 25 new students into our church!! Congrats to all of you and the 5 confirmands that were baptized on Sunday as well!

Then, we had FUEL worship where we kicked-off our new teaching series: “Awakening”. I learned that some of you can sleep for an incredible amount of time! Chris talked about what it means to be a sleepy christian, letting our faith lay dormant in the back of our minds. He then shared how powerful things can happen if we make our faith a priority and  allow it serve as a guide to our lives.

This week we have LOTS going on. We will be meeting for regular youth group this week. Also, the 2011 baccalaureate service is THIS Sunday. Baccalaureate is a service held at Middletown High School to bless the graduating seniors. It begins at 7 p.m. in the MHS auditorium. Quite a few people from our church are involved, so come on out and send your blessings to our seniors!

Here’s what’s going on in the weeks to come!

May 22nd-

• 6:00-7:30 Youth Group

• 7:00 Middletown High School Baccalaureate service in the MHS auditorium

May 23rd

• Small group 6- 7:30

May 29th-

• Youth Group 6:00-730

June 5th

• Church Picnic NO YOUTH GROUP

Welp, that’s all for now!
Have a fantastic rest of your week!
-Carlee

I feel like we all haven’t seen each other in ages! But no worries we have LOTS going on this weekend! Hopefully you all had a wonderful weekend last weekend, and enjoyed time with your moms!

This weekend is confirmation weekend! We’re kicking off the start with our end of the year confirmation banquet on Friday. Confirmands and parents make sure you read your emails from Chris so you know all the details about times and what to bring!  Sunday is confirmation Sunday, confirmands must be there for all three services.

Then Sunday evening is our FUEL worship service. Join us from 6:00-8:30 for a time of worship, fun and food!

Here’s a few things that we have coming up in the next few weeks:

May 13th-

• Confirmation Banquet

May 15th-

• Confirmation Sunday

• 6:00-8:30 FUEL worship

May 16th

• Small Group 6-7:30

May 22nd-

• 6:00-7:30 Youth Group

• 7:30 Middletown High School Baccalaureate service in the MHS auditorium

May 23rd

• Small group 6- 7:30

May 29th-

• Youth Group 6:00-730

I hope everyone has a wonderful week, and I hope to see you this weekend! Congrats confirmands!
-Carlee

I hope you all are having a good week so far!

This week there is no youth group because it will be Mother’s Day. Spend some time celebrating your mom and all the wonderful things she does for you!

Also, join us on Saturday at the 5:00 service to recognize all of the graduating seniors from our church. This is a great service to celebrate their achievement!

May 7th-

• 5:00 Service Recognition of High School Seniors.

May 8th-

• Mothers Day No Youth Group

May 13th-

• Confirmation Banquet

May 15th-

• Confirmation Sunday

• 6:00-8:30 FUEL worship

May 22nd-

• 6:00-7:30 Youth Group

• 7:00 Middletown High School Baccalaureate service in the MHS auditorium

May 29th-

• Youth Group 6:00-730

Welp, that’s all for now! Have a great rest of our week and enjoy spending time with your mom this weekend!

-Carlee

Hey there!
Last weekend we had an awesome time at our FUEL worship service as we dived into some scripture and discussed the Easter story! We talked about Easter eggs and how we as Christians believe that they are the “seed of life” and symbolize the resurrection of Jesus.We talked about how the disciples, who dropped everything they had to follow Jesus for years, must have felt when they found out he was going to be sent to death.

Then we took slips of paper and had some time for reflection where we wrote down how we are surprised by God at Easter each year, and how we can take the good news from the Easter story and surprise others by sharing God’s outstanding love. We slipped the paper into eggs and used them as our offering for the evening.

Here are a few things that we have coming up!

April 17th

• Confirmation Exam week #1- Sign up for your time on the link Chris sent out
• Youth Group 6-7:30

April 18th

• Small Group 6-7:30

April 24th

• NO YOUTH GROUP- It’s Easter!

April 25th

• Soul Surfer – Movie and pizza event- meet at the church at 10 am and we will head over to the movie theater to catch the movie and then have some time for pizza!!

May 1

• Confirmation Exam Week #2- Sign up for a time on the link that Chris sent out
• FUEL worship and dinner 6:00-8:30

**Help a member of our church, Jacob Thompson meet his goal for the Frederick 2011 Mini Relay for Life! Click here to view Jacob’s page and make your donation!

I hope you all have a fantastic day and finish out the week awesomely before Spring Break!

See ya this weekend!

-Carlee (=

Help Jacob Thompson, a member of our church, reach his goal of $70.00 for the Frederick Relay for Life! Relay for Life is an event sponsored by the American Cancer Society that allows people to celebrate the lives of those who have battled cancer, remember the lives of those who lost their battle, and to take a stand and fight against cancer. Jacob is a part of a team that will take turns walking for 24 hours as they raise awareness . Click here to learn more about why Jacob is involved and to help him reach his goal!

Hey there!

This past weekend we wrapped up our Becoming series as we discussed what it means to become a community. Chris started off our talk by skyping us from his office. Not very long into our conversation  we realized that it was really pretty hard to connect and have a solid conversation as a “community” via skype. Our sound and picture qualtiy was very poor, we had misinterpretations, we had to squint at the tiny laptop screen, and Chris said he couldn’t even see or hear  half of us at all!

Once Chris came back into the room we talked some more about what it means to become a community. We talked a bit about how the relationships in our lives would be totally different if there was no such thing as Facebook, Skype, or texting . Then we talked about some barriers that may  be preventing us from forming community with others, and how we can become the people God has called us to be by breaking them down. Chris told us about this really cool guy named Shane Claiborne who has devoted his life to breaking down the barriers and creating community to spread God’s love. The stories about Shane were awesome and it was so cool to hear just how dedicated he was to creating community.

Join us next week for our FUEL worship serive!

Here’s some of the things we have in the coming weeks:

April 10th

• Confirmation Class 5:00-6:00: Walking tour: Confirmands (Drivers are needed!)
• FUEL Worship 6:00- 8:30

April 11th

• Small group 6:00-7:30

April 17th

• Confirmation – Exam week one Chris will have sign-ups and more details coming soon!
• Youth Group 6:00-7:30

April 18th

• Small group- 6:00-7:30

Alrighty, that’s all for now! Enjoy the rest of your week and I hope to see you all at FUEL this weekend!

-Carlee (=

This past weekend we continued on with our Becoming series as we learned about becoming “better askers” in our prayers.
Our scriptures this week came from Luke 7:1-17 where we learned of a Roman solider who begged Jesus to heal his slave, Matthew 20:20-28 where a mother asked Jesus to seat her two sons at the right and left hands of his throne, and then 1 Kings 3:3-15 where Solomon asks the Lord for wisdom to aid his people in knowing the difference between right and wrong.

We learned that we should strive to  become more like Solomon in our prayers, and not as the mother. We cannot ask God to help us pass a test just to get out of studying so we can have more time to play Call of Duty or on Facebook. In our prayers we should ask for things that will better help us glorify God and aid us in better living out the call God has placed in our lives.

Next weekend we will wrap up our Becoming series.

Here are a few other things we have going on in the next few weeks:

April 1st

• SKYDIVING!!!! We are going to take the plunge and jump our of a perfectly fine airplane.  It is going to be soooo awesome…..Just Kidding April Fools

April 2nd

• Church clean-up day-8:00-noon: come and help clean up the church and get us geared up for Easter.  Bring work gloves, and a shovel or rake and help us spruce up the church grounds.

April 3rd

• Confirmation Class 5:00-6:00: Confirmands only
• Youth Group 6:00-7:30

April 10th

• Confirmation Class 5:00-6:00: Walking tour: Confirmands (Drivers are needed!)
• FUEL Worship 6:00- 8:30

Monday April 11th

• Small group 6:00-7:30

Sunday April 17th

• Confirmation – Exam week one Chris will have sign-ups and more details coming soon!
• Youth Group 6:00-7:30

I hope you all are having a marvelous week, and I hope to see you this weekend!

-Carlee

This past weekend we continued our Becoming series with an incredible testimony from Bernie. Bernie shared with us about his experience in working with  Kairos Prison Ministry. Kairos is an organization that travels into prisons to spread the love that God has for all of God’s people to the men and women in the center. Kairos offers worship services, weekly Bible studies, and resources for inmates to continue on their faith journeys once their sentence has been served.

Bernie told us how Kairos reaches out to these men and women and tells them that despite the mistakes they have made they are loved and that God will never leave them. Bernie told us powerful stories about the men he has personally sponsored through this ministry, and about the 30 men that recently made the decision to “make the change” and invite Christ into their daily lives.

Talk to Bernie if you would like to know more about this awesome ministry and his experiences in working with it. It’s really an incredible story that you don’t want to miss out on!

Here’s what we have going on in the next few weeks:

March 27th

• Confirmation Class 5:00-6:00: Confirmands only
• Youth Group 6:00-7:30

March 28th

• Small Group: We are going to be doing something a little different this week. Look for an update from Chris about a possible service project coming soon!

April 1st

• SKYDIVING!!!! We are going to take the plunge and jump our of a perfectly fine airplane.  It is going to be soooo awesome…..Just Kidding April Fools

April 2nd

• Church clean-up day-8:00-noon: come and help clean up the church and get us geared up for Easter.  Bring work gloves, and a shovel or rake and help us spruce up the church grounds.

April 3rd

• Confirmation Class 5:00-6:00: Confirmands only
• Youth Group 6:00-7:30

April 10th

• Confirmation Class 5:00-6:00: Walking tour: Confirmands (Drivers are needed!)
• FUEL Worship 6:00- 8:30

Well, that’s all for now. I hope you all are having a fantastic week and I hope to see you this weekend!
- Carlee
PS- who else is super stoked for skydiving?!?!?

We took some time using Wednesday’s ashes to create a symbol that represents ourselves. After some time of reflection and the message we wrote next to our symbol what it is that we feel God is calling us to become. We are all still working towards becoming the people that God has called us to be. If you get a chance stop by Pastor Chris’ office to see our awesome banner on display!

Here is what we have coming up in the next few weeks:

March 20th

• Confirmation Class 4:00-6:00: We will be working on our stoles this session.  It will begin at 4:00 so that there will be time to finish them up.  If you cannot come until regular time (5:00) that is fine but you may have to finish outside of class.  Confirmands and sponsors
• Youth Group 6:00-7:30

March 21st

• Small Group 6:00-7:30

March 26th

• Messiah Youth Worker Conference: All Day
  Open to High School Student leaders and Adults

March 27th

• Confirmation Class 5:00-6:00: Confirmands only
• Youth Group 6:00-7:30

April 1st

• SKYDIVING!!!! We are going to take the plunge and jump our of a perfectly fine airplane.  It is going to be soooo awesome…..Just Kidding April Fools

April 2nd

• Church clean-up day-8:00-noon: come and help clean up the church and get us geared up for Easter.  Bring work gloves, and a shovel or rake and help us spruce up the church grounds.

April 3rd

• Confirmation Class 5:00-6:00: Confirmands only
• Youth Group 6:00-7:30

I hope you have a wonderful rest of your week!
Hope to see you this weekend!
- Carlee